And while he closes the door to Boyce, he's got to keep the one to the Teachers' Union wide open. The Union has accused the Minister of utmost bad faith when his Ministry outed standard six teachers who'd done poorly on the PSE. Today Fonseca told the press that it is not about naming and shaming the teachers. It's about finding out what's wrong with the PSE.
Hon. Francis Fonseca,
"There was never any intention to shame or embarrass any teacher or group of teachers. Everything we did with respect to that matter was done in full consultation. We can't continue down this road and I am very disappointed with the union's position on this matter. We can't continue down this road where we can't critically examine teachers' performance. It is no state secret, it can't be a state secret. As the Minister of Education, yes I have an obligation to work with teachers and the union but I also have an obligation to the sixty three thousand students in primary school and their parents.
And so when there is fundamental concerns that arises from this exercise measuring up, I have an obligation to share that with the Belizean people and say to them, 'listen, all of us have to work together to address this problem.' The Ministry has to critically look at its self as we always do and see how we can improve and enhance the exam and some have said we don't need the exam. All of that has to be on the table. We have to look at all of those issues. But the BNTU cannot take the position that this is some secret that must only be kept among us in the education community. No, the parents and the students are a fundamental part of our education community and we need to share these results with them."
There are sixty two thousand primary school students in Belize; close to six thousand will sit the PSE in May.
